We love to watch the behavior of the bats while they are hunting. The top photo shows a red bat echolocating a moth above his head just before he loops up to attempt a capture. We’re not sure if he caught one this time, but the bottom photo shows him flying around with a moth he captured a few minutes before the top photo was taken. The photos are obviously out of focus, but they capture hunting behavior so well that we had to post them.
Free-tailed pup trying on his scary face for Halloween. We’re not buying it – still way cute!
Best Insta-replies?
From pink_1101floyd “Fire the lasers!”
From 747mandi “Game face!”
Huber Limestone Mine bats left their Marble Falls roost and headed towards the Blackland Prairie last night, arriving in Austin and Rock Rock around 11 pm. There is apparent comingling of the colonies as they hunt, suggesting considerable ebb & flow between the roosts on a regular basis, either nightly or during shifts in short-term weather patterns.
What fun to have Sara come and visit our flight cage! Sara is from Tokyo and studying abroad at the University of Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning in Buffalo, NY. She is writing a book on Architecture for Animals and came by our facility after visiting the Bat Tower in Comfort, TX.
We so enjoyed her visit! And we want to be first to purchase her new book on its way to the Bestseller List!
Here is Sara taking notes in our flight cage. What a beautiful language!
We are so grateful that she translated this for us! The first word in the second line is “bat” in Japanese. Sounds like “Comoro”?
Thank you for the visit, Sara! All the best to you! We look forward to following your career!
Groot goes back to the wild! Our wonderful Seminole pup Groot was released last night at Jerry and Jim Czyzak’s property in Red Rock, TX. Jerry found Groot in her swimming pool back in July and brought him to us for drinking lessons. He soon learned to judge his angle better as he swooped down for a drink, but never forgot his pool experience. We could never get him to take more than a drop of water, even on the hottest days when others drank a whole syringe!
Last night he went home and brought with him two female Seminole friends. Those of us who witnessed the release have a feeling there will be lots more baby Seminoles at Jerry’s place next June! 🙂
The Seminole Girls were rescued by Tracy Rider and came to us from TWRC. They gave us so much joy as they learned to fly, then drink on the wing. They were among the most dependable drinkers and were the subjects of many of the drinking videos. Love these bats!
Best of luck Groot and you wonderful Seminole girls! We loved getting to know you all and will miss hanging out with you in the flight cage! We will keep with us your friendship and the memories of your trust in us. Thank you for being so patient with us and knowing we would find a great spot for you. This property has tons of pine trees, part of the Lost Pines of the Bastrop area, and you all will make fine faux pine cones as you hang in the pines all day awaiting the nightly hunt. Our thoughts will be with you always.
Here’s Groot when he first came in as a juvy. What a beautiful bat!
All the best to you Seminoles! Long life!
Tiny but mighty! The smallest US bat, tri-coloreds are amazing flyers, powered by those rippling back muscles.
Oh sweet pup! It was so great seeing you grow up!
All the best in your new life!
Wild & Free!
It’s a good day to be a bat!
Look out world, The Class of 2017 is on the loose! Well, reds and evening bats, anyway.
Now that the heat of summer has passed and ponds and tanks are full, it’s a perfect time to get the pups out and let them establish territories before winter.
What fun to see the precocious pups bolt out immediately, followed by the mums, and watch as they circle back and coax out the others. After a half hour all were hunting the treetops, circling high above in the night sky!
Blessings little pups! We’ll miss you! Live long and make lots more baby bats!
Thanks for all the good wishes, everyone! We’re doing ok. The trees are still standing, although they looked as if they were in a washing machine for the last few days. The pups are doing fine. They seem to prefer their leaf umbrellas to the covered areas to which we continue to bring them. When they do fly, they get buffeted by the strong gusts and soon land, but they needed to learn about all this. The adults that shelter under leaves stay fluffed out, while the pups get wet and stay soaked, so it must be a learned behavior to shake off the rain and stay warm. We still have four more days of rain, so we’re not out of it yet, but at least the winds are easing off some. Rains are much worse to our southeast. Prayers for Houston. We’re ready to help with any bat fallout from trees and bridges.